Myanmar to repatriate 165 Bangladeshi boat people
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Yangon (dpa) - Myanmar was to repatriate 165 more Bangladeshis out of the remaining 544 boat people late this month, state media reported Thursday.
A total of 187 migrants were handed over to Bangladesh last month while the remaining people rescued by the navy in May were in shelters at Taung Pyo in western Rakhine state.
The next round of handovers agreed with Bangladesh was to take place on July 22, the state-run the Global New Light of Myanmar reported.
The government has come under pressure from nationalists in Rakhine state, including Buddhist monks, demanding the swift repatriation of two boatloads of migrants taken into detention centres in the state after being found at sea in May.
Myanmar said Tuesday that 102 migrants thought to be from neighbouring Bangladesh were rescued on Bruer Island off the country's southernmost town of Kawthoung, between June 30 and July12.
Some of the migrants reported being taken by force, while others said they were recruited by traffickers to seek work in Malaysia, it said.
The traffickers abandoned them on the 3-kilometre-long island in early June.
An investigation found all of the migrants to be from Bangladesh, the report said.
The navy was searching for more Bangladeshis in the area, and will repatriate any it finds.
